Bletsoe Ave – Named after Bletsoe, a village in Bedfordshire, England. Referred to as “the newformed Bletsoe Avenue” in The Press in 1912 when Harry Brewer advertises 29 “choice building sites” for sale in the Bletsoe estate. The developer of the street may have had some connection with Bletsoe. From Strickland Street to Selwyn Street was created on Deposit Plan 3577 in October 1912. From Selwyn Street to the bend was created on Deposit Plan 3974 also in October 1912. From the bend to Simeon Street was created on Deposit Plan 4061 in September 1913.
A reasonable amount of information from the library website. Papers Past had several ads for the sale of sections in 1912 and 1913. In October 1912 there was an auction of land owned by Harry Brewer and he lived at 175 Strickland St at a house called Bletsoe. He died in 1922 and is buried in Sydenham cemetery and his occupation was bricklayer.
I checked ancestry website and found that Harry was born in Portsea in Hampshire and married his wife Mary Ann in Brighton. Managed to find a family tree that had good information and the person had proved the details by having certificates. Not all the family trees were this good and had conflicting information. I have no idea how Harry and Mary Ann managed to meet and get married as she was born in Bletsoe and her family lived and died in that area.
A pleasant street with a mixture of old wooden original villas plus newer houses from 1980s and 1990s. A few empty sections from where houses have been demolished. The street runs from Simeon St to Strickland St and is cut in half by Selwyn St. One house was really gorgeous and it is the one which had the huge animals on the porch for lockdown bear hunt.
Lytteltonwitch's Walking the streets of Christchurch Project 